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African History seeks to publish scholarly writing on the history of Africa. It welcomes submissions on the history of any part of the continent and its islands. Works could range from the earliest epochs through to the recent past. Particularly welcome are studies that bring to light new archival materials, offer new interpretations of established sources or arguments, and that are interdisciplinary in method but historically-grounded.

We are keen to have the publications in this series widely available on the African continent and therefore pursue co-publishing arrangements with local publishers.


Europe, Africa and the Americas, 1500-1830
Series Editors: and
The explosion of boundaries that took place in the early modern period—cultural and intellectual, no less than social and political—is the subject of this exciting series that explores the meeting of peoples, products, ideas, and traditions in the early modern Americas, Africa, and Europe. The Atlantic World provides a forum for scholarly work—original monographs, article collections, editions of primary sources translations—on these exciting global mixtures and their impact on culture, politics and society in the period bridging the original Columbian "encounter" and the abolition of slavery. It moves away from traditional historiographical emphases that isolate continents and nation-states and toward a broader terrain that includes non-European perspectives. It also encourages a wider disciplinary approach to early modern studies. Themes will include the commerce of ideas and products; the exchange of religions and traditions; the institution of slavery; the transfer of technologies; the development of new forms of political, social and economic policy. It welcomes studies that employ diverse forms of analysis and from all scholarly disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, art history, history (including the history of science), linguistics, literature, music, philosophy, and religious studies.

Manuscripts (preferably in English) should be 90,000 to 180,000 words in length and may include illustrations. The editors would be interested to receive proposals for specialist monographs and syntheses but may also consider multi-authored contributions such as conference proceedings and edited volumes, as well as thematic works and source translations.
Author:

Abstract

The term “military” within the Nigerian context tends to be a misnomer for the Army, with the Navy and Air Force often at the scholarship margins. This article presents a corrective: it shifts the emphasis from the Nigerian Army within the historical discourse on politics and its impact on the military in Nigeria. The paper instead examines the Cold War political origins of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) as an under-researched service branch of the Nigerian military. In 1962, after two years of political negotiations, Nigeria’s politicians shunned British overtures and opted for West German assistance in establishing an air force. In examining the Cold War political environment, including the actors and decision-making in the two years leading to that outcome, the article employs interview data and historical sources from the National Defence College Abuja and the UK National Archives, including communiqués, letters and other forms of official corpus.

Open Access
In: Journal of African Military History
In: Journal of African Military History
Author:

Abstract

The paper examines the repulse of fifteenth century Portuguese slave raids in the Senegambia by the armed forces of the empires of Great Jolof and Imperial Mali, within the context of the ongoing Military Revolution debate and with an emphasis on the military organization and weaponry deployed by both sides. Despite the claims of some historians about early European advantages in naval warfare, any such superiority on the part of the European vessels was not demonstrated in these encounters, with the war-canoes and poisoned arrows of the Jolof and Malian marines proving highly effective against the caravels, cannons, and crossbows of the Portuguese sailors. The African militaries of the Senegambia region were well-organized, well-disciplined, and more than capable of defeating European marauders. If Europeans did develop notable military advantages over West Africans in the sixteenth century, they had not yet begun to do so in the fifteenth.

Full Access
In: Journal of African Military History
Negotiating Survival in a Challenged Economy, 1990s to 2015
This book seeks to explore how the Zimbabwean society and its institutions have survived if not succumbed to continuous economic crises in the country. From the 1990s Zimbabwe experienced a sustained economic decline challenged by both internal and external strains. Coupled with internal mis-governance and corruption, the nation plunged into a political and economic crisis which culminated in the second highest world inflation rate for an economy that is not at war. In the face of the harsh and continuously deteriorating economic environments, Zimbabweans as individuals as well as part of institutions adopted various strategies to negotiate and survive the economic scourge.

Contributors include Wellington Bamu, Nathaniel Chimhete, Anusa Daimon, Innocent Dande, Sylvester Dombo, Tinotenda Dube, Rudo Gaidzanwa, Tafara Evelyn Kombora, Ushehwedu Kufakurinani, Bernard Kusena, Eric Kushinga Makombe, Albert Makochekanwa, Blessed Masawi, Ivo Mhike, Joseph P. Mtisi, Joseph Mujere, Wesley Mwatwara, Pius S. Nyambara, Tinashe Nyamunda, Mark Nyandoro, Takesure Taringana and Nicola Yon (Mutimurefu).
In: Zimbos Never Die?